Divine Design for Daily Living: A 365-Day Devotional

By Lynda Schultz

Do you want to go just a little bit deeper in your study of the Scriptures? Divine Design for Daily Living provides three simple steps that will help you explore the Word of God. As you work through the book, you will: 1.Read through the entire Bible over the course of one year, gaining a broader perspective of God's message to the world. 2.Analyze and apply the verse or verses from each daily reading that have the greatest impact on you. 3.Journal your thoughts and discoveries, maintaining a daily record of your spiritual journey that you can add to every year as you read through the Bible. Take the whole journey. If your steps falter, don't be discouraged; even a faltering step is a right step when it leads to a more intimate relationship with God and His Word.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Word Alive Press
• Release date: Jan 4, 2015
• ISBN: 9781770691933

Book preview

Acknowledgements

My thanks to Reverend Gary Carter and Robin Pifer Director of Fellowship National Networks, for their enthusiastic pushing that has led to the unexpected publishing of the English version of this book.

Sharon Dow generously gave her time and expertise to proofread and to subdue my tendency to be a Comma Queen. Her words of encouragement as she read through the manuscript were much appreciated.

All glory to God, Who has never failed to fulfill any of His promises to me, including those related to the ministry of the written word.

Acknowledgements

Introduction

January 1 – Connectivity

January 2 – Really?

January 3 – Shut In

January 4 – Kingdom Building

January 5 – The Finisher

January 6 – Between Kids and Chaos

January 7 – It Was There All the Time

January 8 – History Repeated

January 9 – Indian Giver

January 10 – Selfish or Sensible

January 11 – When Trust Dies

January 12 – Under the Circumstances

January 13 – I Can’t Do It

January 14 – Who Done It

January 15 – The Last Pilgrims

January 16 – With Friends Like These…

January 17 – Right Words, Wrong Man

January 18 – Guilty While Innocent

January 19 – The Fine Print

January 20 – Bowed and Beaten

January 21 – Wronged… By God

January 22 – Trust the Guide

January 23 – Keeping Promises

January 24 – Expectations

January 25 – Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart

January 26 – Tug-of-War

January 27 – When It’s Time to Shut Your Mouth

January 28 – Divine Disability

January 29 – Taking a Belief Break

January 30 – Point of No Return

January 31 – Pass Over… Watch Over

February 1 – Stand Still and Fight

February 2 – Return to the Root

February 3 – Follow That Angel

February 4 – Night Watch

February 5 – Holy-Day

February 6 – The Gimme List

February 7 – The Will and the Skill

February 8 – Holy to the Lord

February 9 – Forgiven, Not Overlooked

February 10 – Sacred Trust

February 11 – Q

February 12 – Living Illustrations

February 13 – Mildewed or Renewed

February 14 – When Silence Isn’t Golden

February 15 – The Spirit of Generosity

February 16 – The Giving Principle

February 17 – In Charge of the Tent Pegs

February 18 – Carrying the Name

February 19 – Making Room for Others

February 20 – Contagion

February 21 – The Posture of Worship

February 22 – Fatal Error

February 23 – Once is Enough

February 24 – The Order of Things

February 25 – Sweet Smell

February 26 – Loopholes

February 27 – Divine Justice

February 28 – The Burden of the Battle

March 1 – Never Abandoned

March 2 – Grace

March 3 – Sinless Sins

March 4 – The Answer to Poverty

March 5 – A Poor Imitation

March 6 – Counting the Cost

March 7 – Stone Age Sense

March 8 – The Agreement

March 9 – It’s Not as Hard as You Think

March 10 – On Eagles’ Wings

March 11 – Maybe Not Roses, But Pansies

March 12 – The Mighty March

March 13 – Divine Database

March 14 – No Stone Unturned

March 15 – Pension Plan

March 16 – Minor Details Can Kill You

March 17 – The Guarantee

March 18 – A Promise with Teeth

March 19 – Christian Education

March 20 – It’s Enough

March 21 – Discipline Always Has a Heart

March 22 – The Real Supernatural

March 23 – When You Don’t Even Notice

March 24 – No King, No God

March 25 – It Must Have Been a Leap Year

March 26 – The Ultimate Homage

March 27 – The Object of Our Faith

March 28 – Election Day

March 29 – In Spite of Us

March 30 – When Appearances Don’t Count

March 31 – The Freedom to Be Yourself

April 1 – The Most Unwanted

April 2 – White Cane Theology

April 3 – Strength in the Face of Disaster

April 4 – In Praise of Your Enemies

April 5 – A Fool for God

April 6 – A Moment of Fulfillment, A Lifetime of Regret

April 7 – Deadly Omission

April 8 – The Lord Told Him

April 9 – The Strength of a Promise

April 10 – Cheapskate

April 11 – Forbidden to Forget

April 12 – A Poor Substitute

April 13 – Never Forsaken

April 14 – The Illusion of Health

April 15 – When No One Else Seems to Care

April 16 – No Matter What

April 17 – May Day

April 18 – He Walks With God

April 19 – Slow Learners

April 20 – Hurricane Strength

April 21 – Unfailing Love

April 22 – The Ultimate Deliverance

April 23 – Crystal Ball

April 24 – Pierced Ears and Burnt Beef

April 25 – What Do You Live For?

April 26 – Asked and Answered

April 27 – Payment in Full

April 28 – Boogeyman Under the Bed

April 29 – The Song of a Steadfast Heart

April 30 – Muscle Power

May 1 – Under His Wings

May 2 – Keeping Promises

May 3 – Katrina’s Song

May 4 – The Old Gray Mare

May 5 – No One But You

May 6 – Tell the Children

May 7 – Eat Like a Bird

May 8 – No Good Thing

May 9 – Heart Repair

May 10 – Looking Back With No Regrets

May 11 – Life Begins at Sixty-Five

May 12 – When Darkness Reigns

May 13 – In Tune With God

May 14 – It Is Written

May 15 – It Could Be Worse

May 16 – Getting What You Want

May 17 – The Fear Factor

May 18 – The No Fear Factor

May 19 – Cut Off

May 20 – Rules Are Cool

May 21 – The Master

May 22 – A Heart for Evangelism

May 23 – God’s Corporate Ladder

May 24 – The Ultimate DIY

May 25 – Night Shift

May 26 – Purposefulness

May 27 – Surrounded

May 28 – A Path in the Desert

May 29 – Basking in the Son Light

May 30 – Why Can’t You Be Like…?

May 31 – For the Sake of Your Health

June 1 – Braking

June 2 – Tongue-Tied

June 3 – False Fronted Christians

June 4 – The Man in Charge

June 5 – The Ouch Factor

June 6 – Daisy Chains

June 7 – How to Get Even

June 8 – Biblical Arithmetic

June 9 – Fate or Faith

June 10 – Worthless Worship

June 11 – The Devil Didn’t Do It

June 12 – No Substitutes Please

June 13 – Beloved

June 14 – The True Nature of Marital Bliss

June 15 – Penny Wise, Pound Foolish

June 16 – As Good as It’s Going to Get

June 17 – A Container for God

June 18 – Unquestioning Obedience

June 19 – Trivializing Evil

June 20 – The God of the Little Things

June 21 – When God Determines

June 22 – Salt: A Little Goes a Long Way

June 23 – My Dad’s Bigger Than Your Dad

June 24 – Doing Right Even When They Treat You Wrong

June 25 – Power After Death

June 26 – The Lord’s Army

June 27 – A Prepared People, An Unprepared Prophet

June 28 – No Free Ride

June 29 – Water With Additives

June 30 – Empty Words

July 1 – We Don’t Know What the God of This Country Requires

July 2 – For Better or For Worse

July 3 – Just Say Yes

July 4 – Possibilities

July 5 – Green Tree, Broken Stick

July 6 – The Bottom Line for Answered Prayer

July 7 – A New Beginning

July 8 – It’s Your Call

July 9 – Unfailing Faith

July 10 – The Three Sisters

July 11 – Divine Guarantees

July 12 – Effort Without Effect

July 13 – Restoration

July 14 – The Unforgiven

July 15 – It’s All About Him

July 16 – User Friendly

July 17 – Precious Promise

July 18 – Heavenly Boardwalk

July 19 – Highest Court of appeal

July 20 – Caution: You Are Entering Servant Territory

July 21 – Leaving the Bodies Buried

July 22 – God of a Lifetime

July 23 – A Tongue Attached to an Ear

July 24 – Who Would Have Known?

July 25 – You Are Invited…

July 26 – Then…

July 27 – Watch in Prayer

July 28 – Birth Pains

July 29 – Ignore It, It May Go Away

July 30 – The Sum of All Things

July 31 – Second Chances

August 1 – The Man Who Shouldn’t Have Been

August 2 – I Will

August 3 – The Essence of Faith

August 4 – A Wordless Nations

August 5 – A Gleam in a Mother’s Eye

August 6 – A Matter of Heart

August 7 – When Old Is Better

August 8 – The Bottom Line

August 9 – But I’m the Good Guy Here!

August 10 – The Being Behind the Doing

August 11 – What Does the Lord Say?

August 12 – A Heart to Know God

August 13 – Planning for the Future

August 14 – Divine Real Estate

August 15 – The God of This City

August 16 – Surrogate Prayer

August 17 – Idle Promises

August 18 – The Deception of Evil

August 19 – Restoration

August 20 – Our Strong Redeemer

August 21 – When There Is No Relief in Sight

August 22 – The Importance of Lists

August 23 – The Lord of the Battle

August 24 – Guarding the Gates

August 25 – All the Best Intentions

August 26 – Blessing the Family

August 27 – Who Am I?

August 28 – Called to Praise

August 29 – The Weight of a Note

August 30 – Good to the Last

August 31 – It’s All in the Attitude

September 1 – Absentee Landlord

September 2 – His Love Endures Forever

September 3 – A Little Good Goes a Long Way

September 4 – Ending Well

September 5 – Act With Courage

September 6 – Weapons of War

September 7 – A Little Matter of Trust

September 8 – Power and Persecution: Tests of Faith

September 9 – Matters of the Heart

September 10 – Finding the Word

September 11 – Productivity

September 12 – A Test of Commitment

September 13 – A New Heart

September 14 – Then They Will Know

September 15 – Jesus Is Calling

September 16 – Preserving the Name

September 17 – Standing in the Gap

September 18 – Don’t Mess With Me!

September 19 – The Fragile Heights

September 20 – The Outer Shell

September 21 – Hey There, Land…

September 22 – Future Hope

September 23 – Holy Ground

September 24 – The Don’t List

September 25 – The Tree That Is Me

September 26 – Even If He Doesn’t

September 27 – Found Wanting

September 28 – Ultimate Triumph

September 29 – The End of an Era

September 30 – Divine Design in Exile

October 1 – Rising to the Challenge

October 2 – Christmas

October 3 – Going Back

October 4 – Memories

October 5 – From Rags to Riches

October 6 – What If…?

October 7 – The Coming Day

October 8 – The God Who Moves Kings

October 9 – Faith in Action

October 10 – Let’s Start Rebuilding

October 11 – Distractions

October 12 – It’s All About You, Lord

October 13 – The Promise

October 14 – Only the Best

October 15 – Living

October 16 – Heavenly Bank Balances

October 17 – A Family Divided

October 18 – Recognizing and Knowing

October 19 – It’s Not Innocence

October 20 – Letting Go

October 21 – Love Growing Cold

October 22 – You Decide

October 23 – The Revolving Door

October 24 – Adventures at Sea

October 25 – Believing, Yet Unbelieving

October 26 – Stay Awake!

October 27 – …and Peter.

October 28 – The Wall

October 29 – Power Source

October 30 – Thinking Doesn’t Make It So

October 31 – Bottom Line Joy

November 1 – Don’t Break You Arm Patting Yourself on the Back

November 2 – AA, The Bible Way

November 3 – I Have Prayed For You.

November 4 – Where Less Is Better

November 5 – Carnivorous Christians

November 6 – This Happened Because…?

November 7 – The Servant Leads

November 8 – Unity… God’s Divine Design

November 9 – The Basics

November 10 – A Promise for Everyone

November 11 – Prayer Power

November 12 – One Stroke at a Time

November 13 – An Equal Opportunity Gospel

November 14 – Last Chance

November 15 – Embracing the Bad Stuff

November 16 – Tongue-Tied

November 17 – Abusing Grace

November 18 – The Spirit of Faith

November 19 – Check It Out!

November 20 – To Do Lists

November 21 – The H Word

November 22 – When Being Wise Isn’t Smart

November 23 – My Brother’s Keeper

November 24 – The Reason Why

November 25 – Labour Rewarded

November 26 – How’s the Smell?

November 27 – Yoked

November 28 – Righteous Giving

November 29 – Strength in Weakness

November 30 – The Faith of the Righteous

December 1 – All Things Are God’s

December 2 – The Difficult Made Easy

December 3 – Evil Is as Evil Does

December 4 – Shades of Paul

December 5 – At Your Convenience

December 6 – Someone Else’s Decisions

December 7 – The Worker

December 8 – Imitating God

December 9 – The Secret of Contentment

December 10 – Going Beyond God

December 11 – Why Not to Give Up

December 12 – Once Is Enough

December 13 – Perfect, But Not Holy

December 14 – It’s All Part of the Plan

December 15 – Freed Slaves

December 16 – A Suffering Saviour

December 17 – Batteries Included

December 18 – The Worst of the Worst

December 19 – Workout With God

December 20 – Love in the Flesh

December 21 – Diagram of the Last Days

December 22 – Undeniably Joined

December 23 – Love’s Labour Rewarded

December 24 – The Baby Returns

December 25 – These Are the Words

December 26 – Worthy

December 27 – Pax

December 28 – Time Is Short

December 29 – Te Dieum

December 30 – Modern Day Pharaohs

December 31 – Final Invitation

About the Author

Introduction

The Psalm One Principle

"Blessed is the man [whose] delight is in the law of the Lord, and on whose law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers" (1:1-3 NIV).

The first passage of Scripture I memorized as a child was Psalm One. Through more than forty-five years of walking with the Lord, its words have continued to challenge me to put my spiritual roots down deep into the Word of God so that I can know Him better.

In a high-tech world, where it is easy to let others do our thinking for us, we are called to be like the Bereans in the early years of the church: "…the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul was saying was true" (Acts 17:11, emphasis mine).

The Bereans didn’t accept anything, even the Apostle Paul’s preaching, until they had checked it out themselves through a detailed study of the Word of God.

Many people have no idea how to go about devotions and content themselves with a daily reading of random verses that take less than five minutes out of their day—the milk of the Word. Somehow, they never get to actually chewing on the Word themselves, or to being exposed to the whole Bible rather than just random parts. That’s where Divine Design For Daily Living comes into the picture.

Divine Design goes another step beyond reading, to understanding and application. It goes beyond reading random verses to understanding the bigger picture by reading through the whole Bible, chronologically, over the course of one year and analyzing at a deeper level, the verse or verses that God calls to the reader’s attention.

There are three simple steps in Divine Design for Daily Living. You, the reader, will receive the fullest benefit from Divine Design if all three are followed.

1. Read the passage of Scripture assigned for each day. If you are faithful in this task, by the end of the year you will have read through the entire Bible.

2. Read the thought for the day taken from the assigned passage of Scripture. This reflects what stood out to me on that particular day. These are given as an example of the kind of analysis YOU need to be doing as you interact with the passage of Scripture you are reading.

3. Answer the three key questions at the end of each day’s reading. This is the most important part of the devotional journey. YOU need to interact with the Scriptures. YOU need to do what I did: Read, and allow God to speak to you from the verse, or verses, that God causes to jump out at YOU from the pages of Scripture.

Journaling

Buy yourself a notebook, or if you are more technologically advanced than that, keep a record on your computer of what you discover by answering these three questions about the passage you have read. By the end of the year you will have a journal of your spiritual journey, just as I did.

Three questions to ask yourself:

Read the assigned Scripture. What verse or verses are most

significant to you? Why?

What is God saying to you through them?

How do you need to respond to what God is saying?

Connectivity

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said…" Genesis 1:1-3a, NIV

The bowl sits on the counter surrounded by eggs, milk, flour, sugar, butter, vanilla, and baking powder. However, there is no cake until the baker arrives.

Before the beginning of time, there was only God—nothing else, only Him. The Spirit of God was hovering over the countertop of creation. There were not even ingredients waiting to be mixed. Earth, like our lives before God enters, was formless, empty, and dark.

Let me use another illustration here. When I moved into my last apartment, I wondered why the lights in my vanity didn’t work. I changed the light bulbs—nothing. My brother removed the switch plate and discovered that I had a light switch and perfectly good light bulbs, but no connecting wire between them. In Genesis, the Spirit of God hovered, but the darkness remained—waiting for the connection—a connection that came when God spoke.

And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness (Genesis 1:3, 4 NIV).

Nothing much changes between the dusk of December 31 and the dawn of January 1. Your life today may be as dark and hopeless as it was yesterday. But the Spirit of God hovers over that darkness, waiting to bring light to your life, and hope to banish your hopelessness.

God’s desire is not simply to hover, but to bring light and form to our inner being as we allow His Spirit to work in us. And He will work from the outside in, as we study His Word.

He will cook, if we will allow Him, in our kitchen. He will turn on the lights, if we are willing to let Him install the wire. He will speak, if we will listen.

Remember:

In the cross of Christ lies the connection between God and man.

For Your Journal:

Read Genesis 1, 2. What verse or verses are most significant to you? Why?

What is God saying to you through them?

How do you need to respond to what God is saying?

Really?

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden’?  Genesis 3:1, NIV

I have told you ten times, and this time I REALLY mean it! From childhood, we push the boundaries to see how far we can go before I really mean it becomes reality.

God’s instructions to the first family were clear, as were the consequences of disobedience. Adam and Eve were not to eat of one specific tree. Should they take God at His word, or test Him to see if He really meant what He had said?

Eve knew what God had said. She explained it to Satan, adding a few embellishments of her own. Satan planted the doubt from which the disobedience sprang. Surely, God didn’t really mean it?

If God had really meant that they should not eat from the tree, He wouldn’t have put it there in the first place, right? Surely, He wouldn’t insist on such a stiff penalty for a crime which He actually invited them to commit by placing the temptation in their path. He couldn’t really mean it, could He?

James says that God doesn’t tempt anyone (James 1:13). Temptation comes from the inside, from one’s own desires. God always leads us to do right. His tests are meant to perfect us, to lead us to do the right thing and to grow spiritually. Temptations do the opposite. If we fail the test and fall to the temptation, God, true to Himself, delivers on His promises. He really means it when He says that there are consequences to our sin.

We continually copy Eve. Did God really say… ? Well, yes He did, we reply, but He didn’t really mean that… When we suffer for our disobedience, we wonder why there are such drastic consequences to our actions.

And God says: Because I REALLY meant it.

Remember:

Times change. Society changes. Traditions change. God doesn’t change.

For Your Journal:

Read Genesis 3-5. What verse or verses are most significant to you? Why?

What is God saying to you through them?

How do you need to respond to what God is saying?

Shut In

Then the Lord shut him in. Genesis 7:16b, NIV

There is a world of security in these wonderful words: Then the Lord shut him in. God personally locked Noah and his family in. People who ridiculed Noah for building a boat where there was no water weren’t laughing anymore. They were on the outside—and it was beginning to rain. People who had persecuted him for preaching to them about God’s coming judgment on their sins were beginning to feel the slipping and sliding of wet ground underfoot.

…the Lord shut him in. Safe. Secure. Splat. Nowhere are we told that either the animals or the humans in the ark ceased to have all the normal needs of animals and humans. They still had to eat, drink, and exercise their bodily functions. I wonder if Noah ever wished that the Lord hadn’t shut him in? Who fed the animals? Who changed the straw? Who shoveled the manure? On the other hand, short of a marathon swim, Noah didn’t have any other options. But that year of being shut in must have had moments when Noah wondered: Why me, Lord?

Being shut in by God has a wonderful, highly spiritual sounding tone to it. Who hasn’t longed for that perfect quiet time shut in with God? But, even such an intimate time can get painful and troublesome. When God speaks in those moments alone with Him, it might just as often be to kick us in the backside as it is to pat us on the back.

When God shuts us into a particular circumstance, no matter how complicated, fearsome, or wearisome the journey gets, we can relax in the knowledge that our ark won’t leak, reek or creak, except to bring Him glory and to benefit us.

There were challenges to be faced in Noah’s floating water world, but having done all that the Lord commanded him (7:5), having had the door locked behind him by the hand of none other than God Himself, Noah could have had nothing but confidence that this unusual, impossible voyage would end well.

Remember:

What God shuts in, He also always lets out.

For Your Journal:

Read Genesis 6-9. What verse or verses are most significant to you? Why?

What is God saying to you through them?

How do you need to respond to what God is saying?

Kingdom Building

Then they said, ‘Come let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.’ Genesis 11:4, NIV

God’s instructions to Noah were to Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth (Genesis 9:1). That doesn’t sound too difficult, does it?

The trouble was that somewhere between being told to establish God’s rule over the whole earth, and the actual carrying out of that mission, this group of pilgrims decided to establish their own rule over their own kingdom. Three things stand out here in this story:

1.        God didn’t tell them to build a city, especially one for themselves.

2.        The tower they designed was not for the worship of God but a center for self-worship.

3.        They simply refused to obey God’s command to scatter.

The so-called spirituality of our day calls us to discover the god within us, an attitude which gives us permission to be entirely self-absorbed. The message to God from the citizens of Babel was: Who are you, that WE should obey YOU?

Self-absorption often characterizes the church. What would happen if the pastor of your church, or mine, were to stand up before the congregation and yell, Scatter. Fill the earth with the message of the gospel. We won’t be meeting here again. If I were a betting person, I would wager that the vast majority of us would simply find another church to attach ourselves to, a place where we could be somebody. Building our own personal kingdom is what gives us significance, feeds our pride, and keeps us from fulfilling God’s commission for us.

The command to us today is to scatter, to make a name for God in some unreached corner of the world.

Remember:

Fame is fleeting. In the end, only God will remember what you did with your life.

For Your Journal:

1.        Read Genesis 10, 11. What verse or verses are most significant to you? Why?

2.        What is God saying to you through them?

3.                 How do you need to respond to what God is saying?

The Finisher

Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot… and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there… The Lord said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you’…So Abram left, as the Lord had told him;… and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.  Genesis 11:31; 12:1, 4, 5, NIV.

The travel bug didn’t only bite Abram. His father, Terah, also felt the urge to head in the direction of Canaan. However, Terah didn’t get there. Instead he settled in Haran, never seeing the land he had originally set out for.

Hebrews says: By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going (11:8 NIV). It is possible that Abram knew about Canaan from his father, but didn’t understand it as being the land of God’s promise. Perhaps, when God called Abram, the patriarch was unaware that God was going to take him to the very land that Terah had once wished to settle. In any case, it fell to Abraham to finish what his father had started.

The point is that Abraham finished the journey he was called to complete because he had faith. And, like Abraham, we are not going to finish our life journey well, or enjoy the full measure of the blessing of God on our lives, without faith.

There are days when I don’t want to finish, because I am finished—tired, discouraged, frustrated, confused, blocked, and empty. The lesson from this reference to Terah’s incomplete journey reminds me that no matter how difficult, no matter what has to change and what I have to leave behind, I have to finish. Better yet, I have to allow God to finish in me what He has begun. Otherwise, I will die, as Terah did, without seeing what I most want to see—God’s purposes fulfilled in me. That fulfillment is a daily exercise in faith.

Remember:

The promise of the kingdom is made to those who finish the race.

For Your Journal:

1.        Read Genesis 12-15. What verse or verses are most significant to you? Why?

2.        What is God saying to you through them?

3.        How do you need to respond to what God is saying?

Between Kids and Chaos

Is anything too hard for the Lord?  Genesis 18:14, NIV

We almost made it. The bridge uniting the airport with the city of Caracas stayed standing for my brother’s arrival to spend Christmas with me. But, by the time he was ready to leave for the return trip, the bridge had collapsed. Suddenly, a forty-five minute run to the airport turned into a nightmare that was to take over five hours of torturous mountain roads. To add insult to injury, he still missed his flight.

The morning after the bridge was closed and in the midst of considering our options, I read this story of Abraham. Anxious to hurry God’s plan along, he had taken his wife’s servant, Hagar, to bed. This union produced a son, Ishmael. Years later, God spoke again to Abraham telling him that the promised child would come only through him and Sarah. Abraham was then ninety-nine years old and Sarah not much younger.

At the same time, Abraham was concerned about his nephew, Lot. Sodom and Gomorrah had tested God’s patience to the maximum. Their wickedness was more than He could tolerate and He put into place a plan to destroy both cities. Abraham, aware of what God was going to do, pleaded for mercy for those God-fearers who lived in both places. He knew there weren’t many; little did he know there were fewer than ten.

In the midst of these impossibilities and fears, God delivered this message: Is anything too hard for the Lord? It wasn’t a statement, but a question, one that He expected Abraham to answer.

Faced with the same question applied to our impossible situations, what is it that we believe about God? Is there anything too hard for Him? Is it impossible for Him to give a child to two old people, or save a few not-so-solid believers from the pit of hell, or find me a way to the airport to catch a plane? In fact, He did all three.

Is anything too hard for the Lord? No? So, prove it, and stop fretting.

Remember:

The answer to the question is: No, nothing is too hard for the Lord.

For Your Journal:

1.        Read Genesis 16-19. What verse or verses are most significant to you? Why?

2.        What is God saying to you through them?

3.        How do you need to respond to what God is saying?

It Was There All the Time

Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. Genesis 21:19, NIV

How could Abraham, even at his wife’s request, be so cruel as to send Hagar, the mother of his child, out into the desert with nothing but a bottle of water? More surprisingly yet; he did it with the Lord’s permission: The matter distressed Abraham…But God said to him, ‘Listen to whatever Sarah tells you’ (Genesis 21:11, 12). Sarah wanted her rival out of the way.

Reluctantly, Abraham obeyed, believing the promise of God: I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring (Genesis 21:13).

Unfortunately, nobody shared that promise with Hagar. She took her bottle of water and walked out into the desert. When the water was gone and she sat waiting for death to overtake her, THEN God shared his plan: What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid: God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him a great nation. (Genesis 21:17, 18). Why did God wait until Hagar was desperate to share the message of hope with her? Was it because that, until then, she was neither willing, nor able to see the provision the Lord had already made for her?

Then God opened her eyes and she saw the well of water (Genesis 21:19). The well had been there all the time, but Hagar hadn’t seen it. God needed to point it out to her.

How often is the answer right in front of us, but we can’t see it?

How often is the blessing waiting for us to grab it, but we aren’t aware it’s there?

How often is God at work in our lives, but we allow circumstances to blind us to it?

God doesn’t bring us to the point of desperation, or keep silent because of some perversity of His nature. The perversity is ours. The well of God’s resource is there, but until we reach the end of our own vain efforts to solve the problem, we are unable to hear His voice, or see His provision. There is a very real truth to: Let go, and let God.

Remember:

Allowing God to act from start saves us from a painful, and often unnecessary, finish.

For Your Journal:

1.        Read Genesis 20-22. What verse or verses are most significant to you? Why?

2.        What is God saying to you through them?

3.        How do you need to respond to what God is saying?

History Repeated

…she is my sister Genesis 26:7, NIV

We seem doomed to repeat past mistakes. Perhaps Abraham had never shared with his son, Isaac, the faux pas he committed while he was in Egypt (Genesis 12:10-20), or the fact that he repeated the same offense later under different circumstances (Genesis 20:1-17). The story went this way: Abraham was afraid someone would kill him in order to acquire his beautiful wife. To protect himself, he told everyone that Sarah was his sister. It wasn’t exactly a lie; she was his half-sister (Genesis 20:12), but it wasn’t the truth either. Abraham’s faith was weak in the face of an imagined danger.

Whether or not he was aware that his father had committed this sin, Isaac repeated his father’s error. A famine drove Isaac to take his family to Gerar, and when he was questioned about Rebekah, he said that she was his sister, fearing that some envious man might kill him over her (Genesis 26:7). Sarah was Abraham’s half-sister, but Rebekah was no close relation of Isaac’s. Abraham’s half-truth became Isaac’s full lie. History repeats itself, growing worse in the process.

No father can accept responsibility for every action of his children, particularly if they are adult children. However, to every father falls the responsibility of being honest with his children about the errors that he has committed. Such openness serves as both an example and a warning.

Perhaps Isaac might still have repeated the error even if Abraham had shared with him the lessons he had learned from his experiences. Then again, perhaps Isaac wouldn’t have accepted the advice, and gone ahead to commit the same mistake anyway. The son’s decisions, and the consequences arising from them, were his to assume, but silence on the father’s part made him an accessory to his son’s crime.

Remember:

History doesn’t have to repeat itself, if we listen to it, and learn from it.

For Your Journal:

1.        Read Genesis 23-26. What verse or verses are most significant to you? Why?

2.        What is God saying to you through them?

3.        How do you need to respond to what God is saying?

Indian Giver

I blessed him—and indeed he will be blessed. Genesis 27:33, NIV

An Indian giver is someone who gives something and then takes it back, which was precisely what Esau wanted his father to do when he discovered that Isaac had mistakenly given Jacob the blessing meant for the firstborn son.

We issue pseudo-blessings today, sometimes without really meaning them. But in the culture of the Middle East during Biblical times, blessings carried a lot of weight.

Isaac’s blessing was as valid and unbreakable as a will. He was issuing what he thought was a deathbed testament. In eastern culture, such a statement was considered binding. There was no such thing as changing the will, or adding a codicil altering the original one. In Bible times, a blessing given was a blessing gone.

Isaac did not take lightly what he had said—even if he had said it to the wrong person. He might have personally wished to take it back what he had given to Isaac since it was Esau who was his favourite. The truth was that no matter who had received the blessing in Isaac’s household, it would have fallen on the undeserving. Neither Esau nor Jacob placed a lot of value on the things that God considered to be important.

Grace is the unmerited favour of God. It’s the blessing that God gives and doesn’t take back, even though we don’t deserve it, and even when we take it with muddled motives. Like Jacob, it takes us time and a life full of experiences, to really understand, appreciate, and appropriate the grace of God as we should. God takes His blessings seriously. Once they are given, they are gone. When He promises us grace, grace is what we get, unconditionally and without limits.

Receiving his father’s blessing would take Jacob on a path that would carry him to his own encounter with God (Genesis 32:22-32). Receiving the grace of God brings us into intimacy with God, and like Jacob’s encounter with God, radical change is the result.

Remember:

God doesn’t renege on His promises.

For Your Journal:

1.        Read Genesis 27-29. What verse or verses are most significant to you? Why?

2.        What is God saying to you through them?

3.        How do you need to respond to what God is saying?

Selfish or Sensible

…when may I do something for my own household? Genesis 30:30, NIV

Jacob had worked long and hard for his father-in-law. He had offered his services to Laban with the only expectation of gaining Laban’s youngest daughter, Rachel, as wife. For seven years, he worked for Rachel’s hand, and in the end he was given her older sister, Leah. Jacob, the deceiver was deceived. Jacob worked another seven years for Rachel. During all this time, Laban prospered because of Jacob’s hard work. When Jacob announced that he wanted to return to his own country (Genesis 30:25), Laban was less than happy—who wouldn’t be? He had gained enormously from Jacob’s servitude over the course of 20 years (Genesis 31:38ff).

For the first time, Laban actually offered to pay Jacob for his services if his son-in-law would consent to stay: Name your wages, and I will pay them (Genesis 30:28).

Jacob wasn’t fooled by this supposedly generous offer. His answer is interesting: You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care. The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household? (Genesis 30:29, 30).

Christians are called to be giving. Following the example of our Lord, we are to be extreme givers, and to give without expectations. However, does there come a moment when we need to be more generous closer at home than we are beyond home? Paul writes: If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (1 Timothy 5:8). The context specifically concerns looking after widows, but the principle applies in every situation. Being generous givers includes providing for our own families.

By extending this principle to the spiritual realm, we have to ask ourselves the question: Are we as generous to our family with our spiritual resources as we are with our material ones?

Remember:

It isn’t only charity that begins at home.

For Your Journal:

1.        Read Genesis 30-32. What verse or verses are most significant to you? Why?

2.        What is God saying to you through them?

3.        How do you need to respond to what God is saying?

When Trust Dies

Esau started on his way back to Seir.  Jacob, however, went to Succoth. Genesis 33:16, 17, NIV

It is an awkward moment. Two old enemies meet. Years have passed, but the scars remain. They are unsure of themselves, and of each other.

Jacob had returned to Canaan with his wives and children. His estranged brother came to meet him, but with four hundred men (Genesis 33:1): an odd reception committee. What were his intentions? Were the honeyed words of reconciliation just a cover-up for revenge? No forgiveness was asked for, or given. Jacob had taken both birthright and blessing from his older brother and Esau might have felt that he had a right to exact punishment.

Jacob practically groveled before the brother he had wronged so terribly. He held out peace offerings that Esau reluctantly received. It’s hard to kill a man who has just given you a present: hard, but not impossible.

Esau wished to travel with his brother, but Jacob came up with an excuse to make sure that Esau and his men were ahead of him, where he could keep an eye on them.

Jacob twisted his way out of his brother’s proposal to leave him with a squad of bodyguards. The offer of protection might be just a platform for murder.

The older brother finally left, with the expectation that Jacob would join him in Seir, far to the south. However, Jacob headed instead in another direction, west toward Succoth, and then even farther west to Shechem.

The years had passed, but the trust had been lost and the brothers remained apart, coming together apparently only once more—to bury their father, Isaac (35: 28, 29).

When we sin against another, the wounds may heal, but scars often remain, preventing us from ever fully restoring the trust that has been lost. What a waste when brothers are never able to regain what has been damaged through thoughtless and selfish disregard for one another.

Remember:

Time does not necessarily heal all wounds.

For Your Journal:

1.        Read Genesis 33-36. What verse or verses are most significant to you? Why?

2.        What is God saying to you through them?

3.        How do you need to respond to what God is saying?

Under the Circumstances

The Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did. Genesis 39:23, NIV

Betrayed by his own brothers, sold into slavery, separated from his family, falsely accused of seducing his master’s wife, thrown in jail and robbed of every bit of dignity he possessed: how is it possible to believe that the Lord was with Joseph, or that his condition was anywhere near successful?

Perspective is everything for the believer. It’s the unshakable belief that God will bring good out of even the worst possible events. Joseph believed that all that happened to him was part of a divine design. That belief kept him loyal to his captors. It kept him from sinning against God with Potifar’s wife. It kept him humble as second in command in Egypt. He never forgot who was